Rent your furniture instead of buying?

While the Splitwise furniture calculator can help you deal with buying shared furniture (and who gets to keep it when you move out), the hassle of shopping for and hauling furniture is definitely one of the worst parts of moving. An article in SF Gate last week mentions an interesting new service called CORT which will help you rent all the furniture in your apartment all at once.I think it’s a cool, minimalist, value proposition – “furnish an apartment without lifting a finger” – but it is pricey. A 9-month student package in Cambridge, MA starts at $129 per month. This includes “3 rooms” worth of stuff: a sofa, a chair, an end table, a cocktail table, a lamp, 1 dining table and 4 chairs, dresser, mirror, headboard, nightstand, bedroom lamp and queen mattress and box spring. The quote process requires a call, so I’m not sure if this includes delivery or not.

If you have to move every year, or leave your apartment every summer, this might make sense in terms of the hassle and cost savings. If you can’t handle all the furniture yourselves, and need help from movers or parents to get it all dealt with, moving costs alone can run as high as $1000 or higher. But getting friends to help you grab cheap furniture from craigslist is probably a better option for the industrious and budget conscious.